In recent years, many large circulation periodicals have appeared which require rapid handing of portions of the periodicals consisting of signatures which are gathered for stitching, trimmed, bundled for minimum shipping costs, and shipped. A typical operation utilizes a multitude of packer boxes each of which receives signatures seriatum from a signature supply means, opens each signature, and drops the signatures successively straddling a gathering chain that runs in front of the packer boxes and carries the complete collection of gathered signatures to the stitcher. Moreover, because of the need for highly efficient plant operations, there has been a constant effort to increase the speed at which machines operate which has required the development of new techniques for handling the signatures at all stages of a binding process.
In addition to high speed operation, many large circulation periodicals are now demanding a degree of flexibility that has been heretofore considered impossible. This is particularly true, for instance, where the periodical wishes to include one or more inserts that are significantly undersized but are to be stitched in during operation of a bindery line without significant reduction in a cyclic rate of operation which would otherwise decrease plant efficiency thereby increasing costs while possibly failing to accommodate the high volume presently produced by the U.S. printing industry which requires that the most efficient possible use be made of manpower, equipment and plant space. Furthermore, since the need for handling undersized signatures is sporadic, there has been a reluctance to produce special equipment for handling such signatures.
Even if produced, a special piece of equipment would take undue space which is at a premium in most bindery lines. It will also be appreciated that any special piece of equipment would be extremely costly at best and, in all likelihood, very difficult to develop so as to operate compatibly with the remainder of the equipment line. On the other hand, it would be most desirable to utilize present equipment with minimal modifications.
Despite the recognition of the advantages of such an approach, it has remained to provide a commercially satisfactory means for handling undersized signatures in a conventional packer box.